With the ever-increasing demand for mobile apps, having a mobile app has become a necessity, irrespective of the size of the organisation.
According to Statista, the total number of available apps on Google Play store was 2.8 million followed by Apple’s App Store which has 2.2 million apps. (acording to data recovered April 2017)
Companies big or small, old or new, all are venturing into mobile app development business. However, small organisations are concerned about the huge expenditure they may have to incur with their limited financial resources.
The development process is not only expensive but also time-consuming. To combat these issues, below mentioned are few tips to help you bring down your mobile app development costs.
1. Quantity of Devices & Platforms
Be it Android, Windows, iOS or any other operating platform, the expense of developing a mobile app is proportional to the bunch of operating platforms and devices it supports. Every platform presents itself with its own list of possibilities and difficulties. For instance, Android app building includes fragmentation of diverse screen dimensions across a variety of devices and nature of these devices should be taken into consideration.
2. Iterative Procedure
Conventional procedure chiefly moves around improving all peculiarities designed, measuring of performance and development for speed. Although few features maybe insignificant in case of your app or may get removed during the trial period, you would eventually end up wasting resources executing them. Such procedure divides the development period into short stages for a workable group of features. Every group will be produced, tested and used during iterative series called ‘Sprints.’ Just come up with the main concept of your mobile app, and put the development of rest of the features at some later date in future.
3. MVP
MVP or better known as Minimum Viable Product is a concept which works along with a flexible methodology. MVP requires launching an app with basic performance capabilities. You can include superior features after you have carefully studied the demand and have drawn an estimate of returns. Such a strategy will not only save you money but will provide protection from possible technical drawbacks.
4. Opensource
Coming up with a framework from scratch can become quite pricey. But, you can put pre-built frameworks to use and can easily modify these as per your requirements. Many third-party agencies provide solutions in this sphere and most of them provide it for a nominal fee. For instance, instead of wasting time developing your own push notification service, you can utilize a third-party plugin for iOS as well as Android. Further, you can utilize helpful backend services like user authentication, processing data from various users, etc by using Google Cloud Platform.
5. Outsource
Pick your app development ally cautiously and communicate with the partner frequently. Most of the times, projects are outsourced to agencies who charge an hourly rate , but with the help of negotiation, you can make them agree to take your project at a fixed cost basis. In case of getting work done on the hourly basis, try to be more attentive and keep a strict watch on the development deadlines. Ensure that the agency has a competitive workforce with required qualifications and certifications.
6. Maintenance & Upgradation
Once you have launched your app, you can’t just simply sit back and relax. You have to frequently keep updating your app based on customer feedback, suggestions and their experience. Bear in mind that your development workforce should readily reply to cynical feedback or glitches through the maintenance period. Suitable reply to user feedback is crucial to prevent user decline due to inadequate performance of the app.
7. UI/UX
Use of high-end user interface, graphics and animations inflate the cost of mobile app development when compared to regular features. Though each mobile app development is distinctive, there are various components, like GPS, buttons, etc. which are similar. The android and the iOS play store both have set well-defined guidelines to get the UI/UX of your app certified. Because of this, it is imperative to utilize regular and universal elements anywhere feasible and modify only if needed.
8. Cross-Platform
Cross-platform mobile app development is a full proof method of coming up with mobile apps within affordable prices. It needs a singular codebase which can be used for various platforms and this brings down the cost by avoiding paying further on hiring a workforce.
But, this strategy is only successful if your app is simple, basic and doesn’t require hardware integration or native interface. Discuss in detail with your development team, whether your app can be completed employing cross-platform development or if its performance is capable of matching the set industry standards. If your answers are positive, then go for cross-platform development.
9. Documentation
As mentioned in the beginning, the expense of mobile app development is directly proportional to the number of elements. Higher the number of these elements higher will be the cost of mobile app development. Thus, experts suggest that you should have a clear-cut picture regarding the objectives and requirements of your organisation.
An adequate documentation of the goals and requirements will help your team in understanding them quickly. Well-qualified experts and analysts will assist you in determining what are your wants, and what wants can be delayed. All these efforts will give you a crystal clear view of whatever that will be incorporated in the final variant.
10. Strict Supervision
It is quite possible that your development crew and project supervisor may ignore certain intricacies. Due to this reason, supervise the project regularly and scrutinize vigorously to eliminate any inconsistencies. The quicker you recognize the issues, glitches or bugs, the simpler it is to repair. The expense of mobile app development can be minimized, with continuous invigilation and regularly reaching out to your team.
About the Author
Hey ,
The list you have provided covers most of the information about reducing mobile app development cost and I get some very good ideas to implement something new. Thanks for your useful information and I appreciate your research on this topic as well .